Essay contest, red ribbons mark Aids Day at Standard Chartered Bank

Saturday, 27 November 2010 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

An essay competition for staff and their teenage children and handing out of red ribbons to customers at all their branches are some of the activities that Standard Chartered Bank has planned to generate awareness of HIV/AIDS, as the world marks Aids Day on 1 December.

The initiative is in line with Standard Chartered Bank’s key focus and global commitment to education and awareness generation in the fight against the spread of HIV. Demonstrating its high level of concern in Sri Lanka, Standard Chartered Bank played a pioneering role in the formation of the Lanka Business Coalition (LBCH) for HIV, a non-profit body of corporations and businesses, established in 2007, to fight the spread of the pandemic.

Standard Chartered’s lead HIV champion, Director of LBCH and Head of Legal, Compliance and Assurance, Rasadari Perera noted that while AIDS in Sri Lanka is a low prevalence issue, awareness among communities is still the most powerful tool to arrest the spread.

“We still need to keep up collective efforts of education and awareness as these are the only ways in protecting the communities and critical in halting the spread, given that there is still no cure for the virus.”

Central to the Bank’s approach is the training of ‘HIV Champions’ to educate their peers and conduct ‘training of trainer’s’ seminars. Collaborating with the National Council for HIV and Health Ministry, to-date Standard Chartered Bank’s HIV Champions have trained more than 1,000 people including the bank’s staff.

Earlier in June this year, the Bank globally launched an interactive web site, www.vir.us aimed at providing young, web savvy consumer audiences, relying on internet as their primary source of information with basic introduction to HIV education.

Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar, Chief Executive Officer said: “Nothing is more important to us than the health and well being of staff and their families including the communities they live in and we hope this year’s essay competition will make a difference in addressing the awareness levels of one of the biggest global challenges of our time.”

Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event including Valentine ’s Day. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Flower Bouquets, Clothing, Watches, Lingerie, Gift Sets and Jewellery. Also if you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.